Nuclear Rocket Dumped Radiation on Los Angeles Residents in 1965 Test

By Melissa HealyLos Angeles TimesWASHINGTON

A federal agency's test of a nuclear-powered rocket in 1965 produced a
radioactive cloud that drifted over Los Angeles before dissipating over the
Pacific Ocean, according to a lawmaker who charged Wednesday that the
area's 6 million residents were used as human guinea pigs in the
experiment.

Citing documents released by the Energy Department in recent weeks, Rep.
Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said the radioactive cloud of nuclear material was the
result of an "intentional accident" designed to monitor the effects of a
malfunction aboard the rocket.

While radioactivity levels were extremely low and unlikely to have
caused illnesses, Markey said "an intentional reactor accident releasing a
radioactive cloud should not be considered prudent public policy."

The incident is the latest disclosed as a result of an Energy Department
effort to expose government testing programs in which humans may have been
exposed to radiation without their knowledge or informed consent. A panel
of scientists and ethicists commissioned by Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary
is investigating a range of radiation experiments involving humans between
1945 and the late 1970s. The panel also is expected to recommend
compensation and medical follow-up for victims.

In a letter sent to O'Leary Wednesday, Markey urged the secretary to
refer the rocket test to the investigating panel for consideration as a
human experiment. If the panel accepts the experiment as an episode of
human experimentation, Los Angeles residents who can demonstrate they were
affected by the test could be eligible for some compensation. More likely,
however, area residents would be subject to efforts to trace the long-term
health effects of the test.

"The history of the Atomic Energy Commission's nuclear-powered rocket
program is already one of unrestrained radioactive hubris," Markey wrote in
a letter to O'Leary.

The test was conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission, a predecessor of
the Energy Department, with the assistance of the U.S. Public Health
Service and a private contractor.

At 10:58 a.m. PST on Jan. 12, 1965, scientists conducted what they
called a "controlled excursion."

The rocket took off from Jackass Flats at the Nevada Test Site and
burned off part of its radioactive core in a spectacle that scientists said
"resembled a Roman candle." Prevailing winds pushed the resulting cloud of
radioactive debris Southwest from the test site, over Death Valley, and
then onward over "the Los Angeles area," according to the documents.
Aircraft stopped tracking the cloud when it drifted over the Pacific
Ocean.

Public Health officials taking routine air samples from Barstow, San
Bernardino, Los Angeles and San Diego observed "increased radioactivity" on
the two days following the test, according to a 1968 report prepared by the
Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In fact, levels of radiation released in the experiment were lower than
scientists had predicted they would be, the Los Alamos report observed. At
15 miles from the test site, the maximum level of whole-body radiation
exposure was measured at 5.7 millirad. That is well below current standards
set by the Environmental Protection Agency for the exposure of the general
public from commercial atomic power operations. Those standards dictate
that over one year, a member of the general public should not be exposed to
more than 25 millirad whole-body radiation.

Experts said that if individuals were exposed to 5.7 millirad at 15
miles from the test site, those in Los Angeles, some 200 miles away, would
have had significantly lighter exposures. It is thus doubtful, said one
aide to Markey, that the test caused measurable health effects among
residents of the Los Angeles area.

But Markey and O'Leary have argued that even if exposure levels do not
themselves prompt concern, the emerging picture of early radiation testing
raises serious questions about the ethical standards observed by the
federal government enforced in its experimental programs.